Swarthmore offers a wide array of unique classes. I enjoy exploring the course catalog each semester to find interesting courses to take, in addition to the courses required for my major. There are so many options, it’s hard to choose!
Here, a few Swatties share one course that their “high school self” would never have imagined that they would take.
“I’m an Asian studies minor, but in high school I had minimal interest in learning about Asia and absolutely hated history. Soon after I arrived at Swarthmore, I realized that if I wanted to be a fantasy writer, I needed to learn a lot more about people and how they think in order to make believable worlds in my writing. Also, through conversations with intellectually curious peers — something never lacking at Swarthmore — I figured out that I would really be interested in a gender studies class relating to culture and Asian studies. That’s how I ended up in the class Gender, Family and Work in East Asia. My course selection advice to first years is to try something new — either something that they haven’t been exposed to before, or even something that they didn’t like before that they haven’t visited in a while.” – Sophia Puang, ‘24
“Prior to entering Swarthmore, I anticipated that I would focus more on STEM classes, but the humanities course Early Roman Empire History proved to be remarkably invigorating for my intellectual curiosity. Going into it, the concept of Roman empires seemed so disconnected from today’s so-called modernized society, but this course opened my eyes to all the parallels between Roman empires and the news today. One of the reasons Swarthmore attracted me was their holistic learning. I feel like at most other colleges, I wouldn’t have ended up taking the course because I would be too focused on my major and fulfilling the pre-med requirements, but by placing such emphasis on the well-roundedness of its liberal arts education, Swarthmore definitely promoted my curiosity about Roman history. One thing that I think first years should keep in mind while they’re selecting courses is that no matter what classes you choose to take, they will probably be harder than you’d ever imagine, but they will definitely be far more enriching as well.” – Daniel Wu ‘26
“When I took chemistry in high school, it didn’t make much sense and I didn’t think that I really wanted to do anything with it again. But then when I got to Swarthmore and wanted to major in biology, I felt like it would be a good background to have. First I took General Chemistry, and I didn’t like that either until the end of the course when I started to understand it more. Then, because I don’t like to give up on things and I wanted to do the hard thing for myself, I took Organic Chemistry the next semester. I had a teacher in high school who said that part of what you’re paying for at college is the chance to be surrounded by the students who are all very smart and will make you reassess what you are capable of. You start to think, ‘well if someone else can do that, maybe I can do it too.’ I think that is very true at Swarthmore. When I’d see people who were really good at things, instead of letting myself be intimidated by them, I’d ask myself what they were doing to understand it. For example, my lab partner in General Chemistry was really good at chem, and I started to try to learn things the way that he learned them. One thing Organic Chemistry has taught me is that the main thing that stops people from learning are the limits they put on themselves. I would advise first years to be realistic when they’re choosing classes, but to not limit themselves based on what they found easy or difficult in high school.” – Grace Capossela ‘25
“My parents started me with music when I was really young, but before coming to Swarthmore, it was something that I just did out of routine. I never expected I would love it enough to want to study it academically. I took Music Theory during the pass/fail semester, so I still had some leeway if I struggled with it. For me, this course really confirmed the life lesson that it’s never too late to start something new. I thought I would have a hard time because I had struggled with music theory earlier in life, but my class here was excellent and made it easy for me to understand the topic and get invested in it. My advice to the first-year students who already have a specific idea of what they want to do, like pre med or pre law: take time to look at the website and course catalog to see what the requirements are for your ‘path,’ because sometimes there are requirements that aren’t intuitive. And for the first-years who aren’t sure what they want to do yet, don’t be nervous — it’s totally normal. The Swarthmore system is set up to give you plenty of time and space to figure out what you want to do.” – Aaron Thammavongxay ‘25